eBay and some former executives have agreed to pay a couple $56m (£42m) after a campaign of harassment in retaliation for their online criticism of the firm.
In a statement on Tuesday, David and Ina Steiner, said they and eBay had reached a settlement stemming from the 2019 harassment they faced from several of the company’s executives, as well as internal communications by eBay’s then chief executive.
The Steiners ran a website and newsletter EcommerceBytes that was at times critical of eBay.
A group of now former company executives ultimately pleaded guilty to sending the couple a costume mask covered in pigs blood, a book on surviving the death of a spouse, among other threatening actions.
Other actions, external perpetrated against the Steiners included eBay executives sending them a funeral wreath and harassing messages on Twitter (the social media platform now known as X). Some even paid visits to the couple’s Massachusetts home in a bid to install a tracking device on their car.
Seven former eBay executives pleaded guilty, external to the criminal charges between 2022 and 2024, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
An FBI agent involved in the investigation said in 2024 that the former executives’ actions were an “unprecedented, relentless, and over-the-top harassment campaign”.
eBay was also criminally charged and entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with the DOJ and agreed to pay a fine of $3m.
While eBay is paying the couple the bulk of the settlement, including $6m to “various non-profit organizations”, Wenig is personally paying $1m toward the settlement.
Wenig left eBay in 2019. The same year, he had sent eBay’s top communications executive a text message regarding Ina Steiner which said: “Take her down.”
A representative of Wenig on Tuesday said earlier proceedings in the Steiners’ lawsuit explained that his text was referring to a public relations strategy to combat purported errors in Ina Steiner’s writing.
Wenig added: “No one should ever have been subjected to what the Steiners endured in 2019, and I’m saddened by it, especially because it occurred during my time as CEO of eBay. The harassment was deliberately done in secret.”
His contribution is set to go to an unnamed charity that is “dedicated to protecting First Amendment rights” and will be gifted in the name of Ina Steiner, according to the couple’s lawyers.
The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution protects the right to freedom of speech.
Christopher Murphy of Scalli Murphy Law PC, which represented the Steiners in the case, said on Tuesday: “We believe this resolution sends a clear message that corporations and their executives cannot engage in this type of misconduct without facing significant consequences.”
eBay said: “What the Steiners were subjected to by former eBay employees in 2019 was wrong, reprehensible and should never have happened.”
The company condemned the former employees who ended up pleading guilty to criminal charges that led to the civil lawsuit, and admitted to an “unprofessional tone in internal communications” by Wenig and other former executives.
“This agreement is consistent with our commitment to fairly compensate the Steiners and fulfills our efforts to make things right,” eBay said on Tuesday.
